1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning cloth, an abrasive cloth, a cleaning buff and an abrasive buff which are each formed by knitting/weaving bamboo fibers having excellent cleaning, abrasive capacity and excellent ignition resistance.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a material for a conventional cleaning/abrasive cloth or a material for a conventional cleaning/abrasive material such as a buff, chemical fibers such as acryl, polyester, nylon and the like or natural fibers such as cotton, hemp have been used. Bamboo fibers made of fine fibers produced from bamboo material have never been used for this purpose.
However, it should be noted that bamboo as a material contains a relatively large amount of silicon components in its composition as compared with other plants. As widely known, silicon components characteristically exhibit excellent cleaning and abrasive performances and have conventionally been used as a material for cleaning/abrasive materials.
Accordingly, by employing bamboo fibers having such characteristics, cleaning/abrasive materials whose cleaning, abrasive performances have remarkably been improved as compared with conventional various materials for cleaning, abrasive materials can be provided.
In addition, as bamboo as a material contains a relatively large amount of silicon components as described above, it naturally has excellent resistance against ignition and burning. Accordingly, when bamboo material is used for a rotating buff, the material prevents generation of heat, ignition and the like due to friction associated with rotation at a high speed in the rotating buff. As a result, a very safe cleaning, abrasive material can be provided.
Further, bamboo fibers have a relatively high void rate inside thereof as compared with chemical fibers. Accordingly, coating agents for facilitating cleaning and abrasion processes such as a resin can be easily applied on bamboo fibers and such coating agents easily permeate bamboo fibers. As a result, only a very small amount of coating agents is necessitated. That is, various cleaning, abrasive materials which are excellently economical can be provided.
As bamboo trees grow quickly and reproduce throughout a year, bamboo fibers made from bamboo trees can be easily supplied for use thereof. In addition, since bamboo has not been consumed largely in industry up to now, there still remain a lot of bamboo forests which have never been utilized. Therefore, bamboo fibers can be a very preferable cleaning, abrasive material in terms of cost, in terms of protecting natural environment, and especially in terms of protecting forests.
Recently, characteristics of bamboo fibers are getting attention and studies are being carried out in order to utilize bamboo fibers as a pulp material. When bamboo fibers are utilized as a pulp material, contrary to the case in the present invention, the silicon components contained in bamboo fibers may adversely affect in producing paper of good quality. Due to this, material portions of bamboo which contain a relatively small amount of silicon components are mainly used as a pulp material. In other words, the epidermal portion of bamboo which contains a relatively large amount of silicon components is actually disposed of without being used. Therefore, the present invention which effectively utilizes such wastes has a significant merit in terms of environment protection.
Bamboo fibers themselves have excellent bending strength and compression strength because the directionality of fibers thereof is consistent. However, coconut palm fibers which are extremely hard and have excellent water resistance may be mixed with bamboo fibers, so that the shape of a buff made from the resulting material can be more reliably maintained and resistance properties of the buff during abrasion work using a liquid such as water can, especially, be improved.
Further, as coconut palm fibers have voids inside thereof as is the case of bamboo fibers, abrasion agents such as a resin can be easily applied on coconut palm fibers and such abrasion agents easily permeate coconut palm fibers. In addition, coconut palm fibers also have a characteristic of generating less static electricity than other materials. Due to these characteristics, coconut palm fibers can be suitably used as an abrasive material.